FRAGRANT BOUQUET
Every gardener needs a holy grail. For years mine was a hardy geranium called Geranium renardii. It had softly lobed, felt-like leaves and gorgeous five-petaled flowers that were white with purple veins. I saw Geranium renardii for the first time in the pages of an English garden magazine. It was love at first sight. After that, I had to have it. I scoured source information, only to find that the few American nurseries that stocked the species did not ship plants by mail order. Finally I located a source in Connecticut and drove to a town near Litchfield to get it. It was everything I hoped for.
It took some time for me to find another holy grail. My next one was ‘Ming Treasure’, a rare variegated variety of Hosta plantaginea, the August lily. Hosta plantaginea is one of the few hostas with flowers worth looking at, not to mention a glorious fragrance. ‘Ming Treasure’ also seemed absent from all but a few nurseries and was not available by mail. I had almost given up hope after querying a prominent plantsman who is a hosta expert and finding that even he didn’t know where to get one. Fortunately an extremely generous friend found one at an undisclosed location and presented it to me as a gift. I interrogated my friend in vain about the vendor and fretted about the expense she may have incurred, but finally accepted the plant, with the proviso that when I divide if for the first time, she will get the division. I watch over ‘Ming Treasure’ like a mother hen and am pleased to report that the plant is doing well, overlooked so far by both the rapacious slugs and the voracious groundhog.
The other day I found a plant that should have been a holy grail–if only I had known about it. It was lolling on the sale bench at a garden center just outside of Skaneateles, New York, about forty minutes from our summer cottage. We had stopped there to get some cheap geraniums for one of my daughter’s container gardens and I was scanning the leftover perennials to kill time. My eye fixed on a hosta display, which I normally would have passed by, because I, like very other gardener in the known world, already have plenty of hostas. However, several of the hostas were blooming in mid-August, a time when most hostas have already produced and dropped their insubstantial flowers. I looked closer. Not only were the plants blooming, but the pale purple flowers were waxy in texture and substantial like those of Hosta plantaginea. I zoomed in for the acid test–scent. The flowers were intensely fragrant and the scent was pure Hosta plantaginea. I looked at the tag and the name was very appropriate–‘Fragrant Bouquet’.
The blessing did not stop there. The hostas were in full sun; something that no self respecting hosta will generally endure without curling up the browned edges if its broiled foliage. ‘Fragrant Bouquet’s’ foliage was fine, light green with white variegation and no evidence of curled edges. I would have bought the six or seven ‘Fragrant Bouquet’s’ on the bench, but I am trying to economize and restricted myself to one. I consoled myself with the thought that if it likes the environs of my home garden, it will increase quickly and amortize my initial investment.
I did some research on ‘Fragrant Bouquet’ and found that it is indeed a Hosta plantaginea hybrid, whose breeding was the result of a complicated series of crosses, some of which involved plantagineas. It does not have plantaginea’s pure white flowers, but it has all the species’ other good qualities, plus variegated foliage. As a hybrid it is different from ‘Ming Treasure’, because the latter came about as the result of a spontaneous genetic mutation in a standard plantaginea. The breeder noticed that one of his plantaginea plants had variegated leaves. He propagated that plant, named the offspring ‘Ming Treasure’ and it was eventually offered to the world–or at least the small portion of the world able to find it.
The good news about ‘Fragrant Delight’ goes on and on. The aforementioned hosta expert, Tony Avent, plantsman and proprietor of Plant Delights Nursery in North Carolina, lists ‘Fragrant Bouquet’ as one of the best hostas for fragrance, sun tolerance and ability to withstand hot, sticky summer weather. I have high expectations for it.
Now I have a new holy grail, or more correctly, “grails”. Tony Avent has a list of 27 plantaginea varieties and hybrids on his website, http://www.plantdelights.com/Tony/fraghosta.html. I am going to work hard, save my money and start acquiring the 24 that I do not already own. Where will I put all those hostas? I have no idea, but I suspect that a portion of my lawn, which currently has a 20 percent/80 percent grass/crabgrass mixture, will soon be replaced by hostas that are 100% fragrant.
I realize that the plantaginea quest may take some time and effort. Sir Galahad, of King Arthur’s Round Table, spent a lifetime looking for just one grail. He was, however, only an ancient knight with no Internet connection. I am an obsessed gardener with ten working fingers, computers at the ready and a working automobile. Like a horticultural Galahad, I intend to prevail.